Santa Clara hires Herb Sendek as new head coach

Sendek will be officially introduced at a news conference on Wednesday. He replaces Kerry Keating, who was fired earlier this month after nine seasons at the school.

''We're thrilled to bring Coach Sendek into the Santa Clara University family,'' athletic director Renee Baumgartner said. ''He's a veteran coach and a proven winner who has been successful at the highest levels of college basketball. This is an exciting day for Santa Clara basketball.''

Sendek was fired by the Sun Devils late last March after nine seasons. Sendek has also been a head coach at North Carolina State and Miami of Ohio in a 22-year head coaching career. He has a 413-295 career record and has won coach of the year honors in the Pac-10, ACC and Mid-American conferences. Sendek led teams to the NCAA Tournament eight times in his career.

Sendek started his college coaching career as an assistant to Rick Pitino at Providence and Kentucky and has helped develop players like James Harden (Arizona State), Julius Hodge (N.C. State) and Wally Szczerbiak (Miami) into first-round picks in the NBA.

Sendek also has stressed academics in his career. At Arizona State, every senior graduated and his program posted a perfect 1,000 APR score in five reporting years.

Keating had a 139-159 record at Santa Clara and won the 2011 CollegeInsider.com postseason championship and the 2013 College Basketball Invitational postseason title. The Broncos have not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1996.

Santa Clara finished 11-20 this season and came in seventh place in the West Coast Conference with a 7-11 mark.